'Captain Phillips' Review And Why Boston's Accent Isn't Easy

Back in 2009, you may recall, Somali pirates boarded the cargo ship Alabama. The tension between the pirates and the American captain, Richard Phillips, is the basis for a new film in theaters this weekend, and critic Kenneth Turan has our review.

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KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: The cargo ship Alabama is headed down the east coast of Africa when Captain Richard Phillips, played by Tom Hanks, sees something no captain in these waters wants to see.

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TOM HANKS: (as Captain Phillips) I don't like the look of that.

TURAN: Two small skiffs are suspiciously on his tail.

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HANKS: (as Captain Phillips) Four pirates on board. Four pirates coming towards us down the main deck. Lock down the bridge. Listen up. We have been boarded by four armed pirates. You know the drill. We stay hidden no matter what.

TURAN: Because the pirates are armed and the ship is not, the four outlaws are soon in control. That results in an intricate game of cat and mouse between captors and captives, which begins when the pirate leader asserts his authority.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Look at me.

HANKS: (as Captain Phillips) Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Look at me.

HANKS: (as Captain Phillips) Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm the captain now.

TURAN: Tom Hanks is in his element here as the above-average average man who displays a kind of everyday heroism as he struggles to protect his crew. As good as Hanks has been in the past, there are moments - especially when he breaks down emotionally when it's all over - that are unlike anything we've seen from him before.

Director Paul Greengrass is best known for bringing a sense of propulsive reality to both "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," and he's at his best here. The anxiety is so great that I found myself looking at my watch because I wasn't sure how much more of it I could stand.

"Captain Phillips" also spends time with the pirates. It gives us a sense of why these impoverished men under the thumb of dangerous warlords do what they do. The exasperated captain says to one of them: There's got to be something other than being a fisherman or kidnapping people. And the Somali replies: Maybe in America.

That clash of cultures adds another level of tension to an already disturbing film.

STEVE INKSEEP, HOST:

Kenneth Turan reviews movies for MORNING EDITION and for the Los Angeles Times.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

You may have picked out a Boston accent from the character played by Tom Hanks. We were wondering what makes a good Boston accent.

INSKEEP: So we called up the Boston Globe's movie critic Ty Burr who says Boston accents are hard.

TY BURR: It's one of those accents you have to live. You can't get it. So many great actors have come to grief on this accent. I think of Julianne Moore in "30 Rock." Remember that?